------------ unedited snippet of a WIP Please Don't Insist --------------
Prowl cornered First Aid in the hallway to the rec room. He had given the other mech a few Earth days to think about his proposal, and it was time to ask again.
His doorwings flared upwards as he stood in front of the young bot and First Aid twitched as Prowl cleared his vocalizer.
“Um, hello Prowl, sir.” the young medic said quickly. “How are you doing? Is your shoulder holding up well?” Blue optics locked onto said joint as if he would take it apart right there in the hallway if it was hurting the SIC.
Obligingly, Prowl rolled the shoulder joint in its socket, hearing the soft whirrs of the motion through the resonance of his frame. “The repairs you made yesterday were perfectly satisfactory.” He was pleased to see the other bot so concerned with him as well. There had been a small chance the young medic would have been so unsettled by his request that Prowl would have been forced to have a confession with Ratchet about it. “I was wondering, though, if you had thought about my proposal from earlier.” His doorwings fluttered back and forth quickly in expectation of what First Aid would say in response.
First Aid shifted from foot to foot. “Well…um,” his vocalizer gave a soft whine and the mech averted his optics as he reset it. “I-I’m not really sure I’m qualified for something like that…and-”
Prowl cut him off as he stepped forward and into his sensor-net field. “That is a perfectly acceptable answer, First Aid.” He sent a soft wave of reassurance through the net. The other’s optics cut upwards swiftly. Blue spiraled wide – threatening to overcome the entire iris diaphragm. “I will simply have to find someone else who thinks they are qualified to do it. Maybe one of the human mechanics would be willing?” A calculated shrug of one shoulder was matched with a dismissive wing flick.
First Aid startled and Prowl deftly turned around, sliding on the edge of his foot smoothly. He only managed two steps before he felt a servo grab his arm and haul him backwards. Only turning his helm, he moved his left doorwing down and backwards so he could see the flustered face of First Aid. He raised a questioning optical ridge as the young bot just stood there holding his arm.
First Aid shifted again, as if embarrassed by his bold move. “Don’t do that, Prowl, sir.” His fingers tightened their hold for a moment before letting go. They brushed the bottom edge of Prowl’s doorwing as he pulled back, causing a sensornet spike that showed just how conflicted he was making the other mech. “Give me a few more solar cycles to think.”
It was thrown as a quiet, firm, statement. It was challenging Prowl, and the SIC was happy to let it in this situation. Nodding to show his acquiescence, he continued on his way.
His doorwings were flicking happy circles as he entered his office.
--
First Aid twitched as another bot entered the rec room. A quick glance as he shifted forward showed it was just Sideswipe, probably just coming in off shift for some energon. The realization didn’t cause the tension cables around his backstrut to release any however, or the tightness in the gears of his shoulders to ease.
Swallowing a quick mouthful of his energon, he un-subspaced the datapad he had brought with him and tried to relax. It had seemed like a good plan back in his room. Go the rec room, grab some energon his HUD was telling him was desperately needed, hide in a corner just populated enough that Prowl couldn’t corner him, and read a medical datapad for a while. What could go wrong with that?
Said plan failed as he focused in on the datapad. He had opened it to a random file on pure whimsy. Pure whimsy was now displaying a comprehensive layout of the main energon and electrical lines commonly found in Praxian helms.
He figured he could blame Prowl for the new dent in his helm as he let his head fall onto the table. Shuttering his optics, he crossed his arms in front of his head and cycled air furiously through his vents. This was too complicated. He just wanted to help everyone. But now… helping involved putting another mech into a critically threatening position and then helping them overload, and First Aid wasn’t sure exactly how that fit into his philosophy.
